Swirl Cupcakes {tutorial}

I love birthday parties.  Talk about fun times!  (You can see that as evidence from here.)  A mom-friend of mine asked me if I could make cupcakes for her daughter’s 5th birthday.

Colors she likes? I asked.  Everything pink and purple, her mom said with a laugh. She’s very girly.

Instead of making her daughter choose pink or purple frosting, I decided to swirl them together.  Our Best Bites had a great tutorial, and it was perfect for this girl’s big day.  It’s really easy to make, and I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it earlier!  You need these things:

As well as frosting and coloring.  (I made a vanilla buttercream and almost always use AmeriColor to color my icings.)  Tint the frosting to the coloring you like.  When using buttercream, make sure you don’t overmix it.  When tinting, fold the color into the frosting, as you want to keep it light and fluffy.  Divide the frosting into two and place in separate bowls.

Once the desired color is reached, put the icing into its own piping bag.  Flatten just a bit.  (You want it to fit into another piping bag.)

Snip of a little bit of the end, then place both bags into the third piping bag with a large coupler and a 1M tip.

And then twist the top of the bag and squeeze gently.  Pipe some out onto a napkin until you get both colors, and then pipe onto the cupcake.  I like to add sugar pearls once I’ve finished piping, but that’s just me.

Oh so girly and fun!

I will leave you with my favorite vanilla cupcake and buttercream frosting recipe.  Even if you don’t tint the frosting, and leave it white, it is extremely yummy and delicious.  (You could add any extract to this recipe.  Just replace the vanilla amount for the extract you want.  They’re very good as lemon!)  And you don’t even need a birthday to celebrate in order to enjoy these.  xoxo

Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

printable recipe

Makes 12 cupcakes
1 ½ t baking powder
1 c cake flour
½ cup flour
1 cup sugar
¼ t salt
½ c (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, at room temperature
2 eggs
½ c milk
2 t vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 350, and line muffin tin with cupcake liners.
Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, pour dry ingredients into the bowl and mix on low for 2-3 minutes, until well combined. Add the cubed softened butter, and mix on low speed until the butter is well-coated and pieces are small and crumb-like, about 20-30 seconds.
Add eggs, one at a time, until combined.  (The egg yolk is dissolved.)  Slowly add the milk and vanilla—scrape down bowl to get all ingredients combined.  Fill cupcake liners (in tins) about 2/3 full, and bake 17-20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean.
Take cupcakes out of muffin tin and transfer to a cooling rack.  Cool before frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream

enough to frost 12 cupcakes
¾ c (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 ½ t vanilla

Beat butter with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.  Reduce speed to medium.  Add sugar, ½ cup at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition.  Add vanilla and beat until buttercream is smooth.